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Day in and day out you always hear a friend or family member say, â€śIâ€™m going to start an ecommerce website.â€ť Thatâ€™s great. Really, it is. The problem with most people who make that remark is that when you ask them what they are going to sell…they simply arenâ€™t too sure.

How we all wish ecommerce was that simple, right? In order to have a successful ecommerce business, itâ€™s important, I would say IMPERATIVE you do your research on what it is you will sell.

So, how do you decide what to sell online? What will you sell on your new ecommerce website?

PASSION IS ALWAYS THE BEST FIRST CHOICE

People will always tell you or you will always hear the famous line, â€śdo what you love,â€ť or â€śdo what makes you happy.â€ť I will tell you this…â€ťSELL WHAT YOU LOVE…SELL WHAT MAKES YOU HAPPY.â€ť

Think about products or something that you really love and really try to get into that niche. If you sell what you love, youâ€™re more likely to be a lot more engaged in the business and really enthused about it which will create a good positive energy to start building your business.

WHAT IF I CANâ€™T SELL WHAT I LOVE OR WANT?

As cliche as this may sound, if you want to do it, you probably canâ€™t. But letâ€™s say you canâ€™t start an online business selling your first option…what to sell now you ask? Go to websites like Amazon, Zappos and other big players and look for best sellers. Browse through their gigantic website and see what is popular, what is trending, etc.

ITâ€™S BEST TO GO NICHE – NICHE WEBSITES PERFORM WELL.

If youâ€™re just starting an ecommerce websites, especially for the first time, itâ€™s always best to go niche at first…maybe even stay niche. Take Zappos.com for example. The company that got bought out by over 1 BILLION dollars started as just an ecommerce shoe store before it sold everything under the sun.

If you find a product, try to focus on just that product and start a website and all its content around that product. This may even go over better with consumers shopping through your websites as consumers like speciality sites…there is more trust there.

RESEARCH AND KNOW YOUR MARKET.

Once you have your product, the key ingredient to the success of your ecommerce store will be how well you know your market. Research and study your competitors and know the following KEY elements:

-Price point of products you are competing with
-Keywords they use to promote and market their website
-Promotions they use

IN THE END, ITâ€™S ALL ABOUT PROFITABILITY

You never want to go or start any business before you analyze some numbers. Granted, itâ€™s very important to note and realize that any business takes money to launch. It can be as little a $100 to a few thousand, depending on how you want to launch, the type of website you want to design, etc.

However, for long-term durability and to really build a long-term ecommerce business, itâ€™s important to analyze your margins of the products you sell. Will you be profitable after all the fees you incur as a business (i.e. credit card fees, marketing cost, etc.) ?